Managed Services/ Outsourcing

The competitive pressure in the retail banking and retail sector remains high. Optimization of the sales process, cost-effectiveness, higher customer loyalty and process and workflow automation are therefore top of the agenda.
Financial institutions and retail companies are facing this challenge by outsourcing IT infrastructure and processes that are not part of their core business. The result is a positive impact on the IT outsourcing market: Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) expects annual growth of more than 6% in retail banking and over 5% in retailing in the next three years.

The market is changing
More and new distribution channels will be established in the near future – ranging from self service systems via branches and stores, call center supported customer care up to internet and mobile channels.
In parallel, according to Gartner* a key trend is “business enterprises [will] own no IT.” In order to reduce costs and improve quality, Gartner* also states that “the first choice of buyers is to consider “buying” – not building – IT solutions”. With another major trend of cloud service, “accessing IT assets that are widely available to many companies and are delivered through this model.”

These changes affect service providers as well. In a hyper-competitive market, Gartner* reports “traditional IT services that are resource intensive and delivered to highly customized, one-off infrastructures will wane in demand over next 10 years”, because they cannot satisfy customers’ needs for higher flexibility, agility, and cost efficiency anymore.
What is needed instead are solution modules that, like the famous Lego bricks, can be assembled flexibly into complete business solutions and can be managed virtually. Standard plus customization is the motto. The ultimate goal is to speed up strategically important business processes and to reduce the organization’s workload.

Advantages for customers
In this situation, Managed Services and Outsourcing offer decisive added value for retail banks and retail companies. A dense network of branches and stores is common in both industries and the availability of their IT- and self-service systems is a business-critical aspect.
In the first step, outsourcing of standardized operations to an external service provider will increase IT availability and cut costs, since retail banks and retail companies no longer have to set up, run, maintain and further develop their own branch IT.

In order to ensure sustainable automation and optimization of business processes, the customers’ and service providers’ IT must be connected to form an end-to-end business process. This enables the achievement of strategic objectives, such as process optimization, lower costs and greater flexibility. More transparency in service processes and permanent risk minimization are further benefits in favor of Managed Services and Outsourcing.

Wincor Nixdorf’s offering
As an end-to-end provider, Wincor Nixdorf covers the entire range of services, from classic maintenance and repairs to the operation of self-service systems, IT infrastructures and applications, through to the management of cash and payment processes. And that’s not all: Wincor Nixdorf supports its customers throughout their modernization efforts and strategic realignment.
Further information on the subject can be found in the Services area in the upper right corner.

*Gartner, Inc., The Gartner Scenario for IT Services Providers: The Future of IT Services, June 2011 Update, Eric Rocco, et al, June 29, 2011.